Second owner of 92 PU 3vze, 289,000 miles. Dealer claims records show head gasket was done at about 90,000?. Original owner, a friend and attorney, insists, not to his knowledge. I called dealer who claims that the original owner of the dealership kept all the hard copy of the repair orders when he sold the dealer and the records would not be available for my inspection.

How improbable that someone would sell a dealership and want to retain the repair orders. That is what makes me most suspicious. I suspect fraud. If a dealer wanted to make a little extra money he could look through the files and find vehicles which were never brought in for the recall and submit warranty paperwork for the repair. (I used to work for a dealer, and these things do happen)

I want to know if there is any identifying mark or change in the gasket which I could use to determine if the gasket I am going to pull is the very first original one or a replacement. As a Mercedes Mechanic, I have pulled heads with hundreds of thousands of miles and for the most part all the numbers and manufacturing logos are readily visible since the gasket was sandwiched tightly between the surfaces.

I purchased JMNR full engine set, but now question whether it is OEM as I believed the after market source indicated. It may be that they were saying that they use OEM head gaskets and the remaining gaskets are not. I have read many posts here and find the information valuable. I am glad I found you. I am very happy with my Toyota and often compare it to Mercedes Quality. Ted

 

This is a good question I want to know as well

 

If a toyota dealer did a recall on it. It would be stored with Toyota's database. As well as the steering relay rod recall.

 

Why would the dealership lie? They make money by doing repairs.
If there was any chance they could bill Toyota for it...they would.

Its not like they pay for recall work themselves and are trying to weasel out of it.

As second owner...you dont really have any rights to work orders involving your truck. Even if they had them...they have no obligation to show you.

I'm sure you are upset about the head gasket. It sucks. But in reality...
if the dealer said it was done...you are gonna pay for it this time.

 

If you were to show me the head gaskets that are on the engine now, I could easily tell you if they were the original head gaskets installed on the engine or not. With a high degree of certainty.

Because....

There was an OEM head gasket design change that occured shortly after the vehicle was made(in 92). And a 92 with 90k miles would most likely have been a prime candidate for the V06 head gasket recall campaign which began in October of 94. Therefore, IF the dealer's story holds true, it would most likely have head gaskets of the newer design being installed during said recall(at some point after 10-7-94). If not, it would still have the older design head gaskets that were installed at the factory. Unless, it was serviced(w/ new head gaskets of the old design) at some point before the recall(before 10-7-94). Which I would consider to be very highly unlikely(since I don't believe in the 3VZ-E head gasket issue being anywhere near as common as most folks insist it is, and it wouldn't surprise me IN THE LEAST if yours went 289,000 miles on the original old design head gaskets installed at the factory in 92).